INPUT SUPPORT DEVICE, INPUT SUPPORT METHOD, AND INPUT SUPPORT PROGRAM

• US 20150309991A1
• Filed: 08/09/2013
• Published: 10/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Rakuten, Inc. (Rakuten Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rakuten, Inc. (Rakuten Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: HAYASHIBE, Yuta, HAGIWARA, Masato
• Application Number:
  US14/650,220
• Publication Number:
  US 20150309991A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3337 Translation of the query language, e.g. Chinese to English
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/129 Handling non-Latin characters, e.g. kana-to-kanji conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis

Abstract

An input support device according to one embodiment includes a receiving unit, a search unit and an output unit. The receiving unit receives an input letter string in Roman letters. The search unit performs first processing that searches a storage unit storing alphabetical words/phrases in a first language and romanized words/phrases in a second language corresponding to the words/phrases in the first language in a way their correspondence can be specified for words/phrases in the first language containing the input letter string, and second processing that searches the storage unit for words/phrases in the first language corresponding to the romanized word/phrase containing the input letter string. The output unit outputs a result of the first processing and a result of the second processing as input candidates.

Claims

1. An input support device comprising:

at least one memory operable to store program instructions;

at least one processor operable to read and carry out said program instructions, said program instructions including;

receiving instructions configured to cause at least one of said at least one processors to receive an input letter string in Roman letters;

search instructions configured to cause at least one of said at least one processors to perform first processing that searches a storage unit storing alphabetical words/phrases in a first language and romanized words/phrases in a second language corresponding to the words/phrases in the first language in a way their correspondence can be specified for words/phrases in the first language containing the input letter string, and second processing that searches the storage unit for words/phrases in the first language corresponding to the romanized word/phrase containing the input letter string; and

output instructions configured to cause at least one of said at least one processors to output a result of the first processing and a result of the second processing as input candidates.

2. The input support device according to claim 1, wherein

the input letter string contains a plurality of words,

the search instructions are further configured to cause at least one of said at least one processors perform the first processing and the second processing for each of the plurality of words, and

the output instructions are further configured to cause at least one of said at least one processors to output a common word/phrase in the first language retrieved with all of the plurality of words as the input candidates.

3. The input support device according to claim 2, wherein

the common word/phrase in the first language selected by a user replaces the whole input letter string, and thereby input of the selected word/phrase is confirmed.

4. The input support device according to claim 1, wherein

the input letter string contains a plurality of words, and

the output instructions are further configured to cause at least one of said at least one processors to output words/phrases in the first language retrieved with a certain word among the plurality of words as the input candidates.

5. The input support device according to claim 4, wherein

the certain word is a word located at an end of the input letter string.

6. The input support device according to claim 4, wherein

the word/phrase in the first language selected by a user replaces only the word used as search conditions for the selected word/phrase among the plurality of words, and thereby input of the selected word/phrase is confirmed.

7. The input support device according to claim 1, wherein

the input candidates include a word/phrase in the first language to which information indicating an unconfirmed part is added, and

when input of the word/phrase having the unconfirmed part is confirmed, a focus is set on the unconfirmed part.

8. The input support device according to claim 1, wherein

the input candidates include a word/phrase in the first language to which information indicating an unconfirmed part is added, and

the input support device further includes slot processing instructions configured to cause at least one of said at least one processors to, when input of the word/phrase having the unconfirmed part is confirmed, acquire words/phrases likely to be inserted into the unconfirmed part and outputs the acquired words/phrases as additional input candidates.

9. The input support device according to claim 8, wherein

the slot processing instructions cause at least one of said at least one processors to acquire words/phrases likely to be inserted into the unconfirmed part by referring to a specified storage unit storing correspondence between an unconfirmed part of a word/phrase and words/phrases that can be inserted into the unconfirmed part.

10. The input support device according to claim 8, wherein

the slot processing instructions cause at least one of said at least one processors to acquire words/phrases likely to be inserted into the unconfirmed part by referring to a specified storage unit storing a corpus of at least one of the first language and the second language.

11. The input support device according to claim 10, wherein

the additional input candidates are displayed in an order according to the number of appearances in the corpus.

12. The input support device according to claim 8, wherein

the slot processing instructions cause at least one of said at least one processors to analyze a confirmed letter string located before the input letter string and thereby estimates a word/phrase likely to be inserted into the unconfirmed part.

13. The input support device according to claim 12, wherein

in the additional input candidates, a word/phrase estimated by analysis of the confirmed letter string is displayed in preference to a word/phrase not estimated by the analysis.

14. The input support device according to claim 8, wherein

when there are a plurality of unconfirmed parts in a word/phrase in the first language contained in the input candidates, the slot processing instructions cause at least one of said at least one processors to acquire the additional input candidates for each of the unconfirmed parts and acquire combination information indicating a natural combination between a word/phrase likely to be inserted into a first unconfirmed part and a word/phrase likely to be inserted into a second unconfirmed part, and output the combination information together with the additional input candidates for each of the unconfirmed parts, and

in response to a user operation in one of the first and second unconfirmed parts, a word/phrase likely to be inserted into another one of the unconfirmed parts is presented based on the combination information.

15. The input support device according to claim 1, wherein

the input candidates are sorted into a column of words and a column of phrases and displayed.

16. The input support device according to claim 15, wherein

the phrases are further sorted into a plurality of columns by meanings and displayed.

17. The input support device according to claim 1, wherein

the input candidates are sorted into a plurality of columns by meanings and displayed.

18. The input support device according to claim 15, wherein

the input candidates are displayed so that columns are scrolled independently of one another.

19. An input support method performed by an input support device including at least one processor, comprising:

receiving an input letter string in Roman letters;

performing first processing that searches a storage unit storing alphabetical words/phrases in a first language and romanized words/phrases in a second language corresponding to the words/phrases in the first language in a way their correspondence can be specified for words/phrases in the first language containing the input letter string, and second processing that searches the storage unit for words/phrases in the first language corresponding to the romanized word/phrase containing the input letter string; and

outputting a result of the first processing and a result of the second processing as input candidates.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing an input support program causing a computer to:

receive an input letter string in Roman letters;

perform first processing that searches a storage unit storing alphabetical words/phrases in a first language and romanized words/phrases in a second language corresponding to the words/phrases in the first language in a way their correspondence can be specified for words/phrases in the first language containing the input letter string, and second processing that searches the storage unit for words/phrases in the first language corresponding to the romanized word/phrase containing the input letter string; and

output a result of the first processing and a result of the second processing as input candidates.